UFC 78: Houston Alexander vs. Thiago Silva

Houston Alexander (8-1) and Thiago Silva (11-0)will clash in a hard-hitting light heavyweight bout at UFC 78: “Validation” on November 17 at the Prudential Center in Newark, N.J., according to UFC.com.

This latest announcement comes on the heels of breaking news last night that Rashad Evans and Michael Bisping would meet in the main event of the evening.

We first passed along a report along earlier this week that Alexander and Silva would tangle. And now that it is confirmed it also almost finalizes the UFC 78 fight card.

“The Assassin” has wiped the floor in his first two appearances inside the Octagon, flooring Keith Jardine at UFC 71 with punches and crushing Alessio Sakara at UFC 75 with knees and punches. Both fights combined have not lasted longer than two minutes.

Silva is an undefeated ChuteBoxe-trained fighter who most recently snuffed out the very tough Polish product, Tomasz Drwal, via second round technical knockout at UFC 75. He, too, will be making his third appearance inside the Octagon. His other win came against James Irvin, which was stopped because the “Sandman” sustained a fight-ending knee injury in the first round.

This should be an explosive bout, as well as provide some real answers as to where these guys fit in a stacked light heavyweight division. It’s been hard to gauge thus far because both of these fighters have made it their business to end fights very early.

Then again, we will more than likely see that happen again — Alexander and Silva are beasts who love to bang.